Additional Details

About WriteShop: Incremental Writing Program Workbook 1

Please note that this workbook has undergone a format change in 2015. It is no longer in a binder, but is now soft cover with tear-off pages (bound at the top). Pages are 3-hole punched to add to your own binder.

Description from WriteShop

WriteShop I is an incremental writing program that focuses on teaching teens the steps of the writing process through lessons in descriptive, informative, and narrative writing. The consumable workbook contains Skill Builders, word banks, detailed writing instructions, editing checklists, and evaluation forms.

Parents who lack confidence in their own ability to teach their students to write have finally got a resource that takes the guess work out of the process. WriteShop provides detailed daily lesson plans and instructions for teachers plus student workbooks with worksheets and forms that walk you all the way through activities, evaluation and grading. Examples, check lists for both students and teachers, and evaluation forms show students the objectives and teachers what to look for in completed work.

Not only do these features make the program easy to use, but the authors have structured lessons to build from the ground up, covering sentence and paragraph structure and style before tackling lengthier assignments. The subtitle, "An Incremental Writing Program," refers to the way the program incorporates and builds upon skills taught in previous lessons. Because of this, you should not skip lessons or change the order.

Targeted at students in grades 7-10, WriteShop might actually be used with students in grades 5-10. It works well for parents working with one or more of their own children on their own, but it will also work in a group class situation. It does need to be taught; it is not designed for independent study even though students do much writing on their own. WriteShop is a great starting place for those who have done minimal writing instruction with their children.

The Lessons, each of which might take about two weeks to complete, include "skill builder" exercises that focus on a narrow skill, usually related to grammar or vocabulary. The "skill builder" activity feeds directly into the primary lesson. For example, the second lesson is "Describing a Pet." The "skill builder" teaches students to use a thesaurus to come up with more interesting words to replace overused adjectives and weak verbs. This skill is then incorporated into the pet description. Many of the grammar-oriented skill builders help students finally see the use of some of their grammar lessons.

Two weeks per lesson sounds like a lot, but the authors have incorporated more than the "skill builder" focus into each lesson. For example, the pet description also works with mind maps, topic sentences, metaphors and similes, and concluding sentences. In addition, students are working through the editing and rewriting process on the original assignment. They also should be completing copying and dictation assignments that build skills of observation and attention while working on various sentence constructions and broader vocabulary. I think the authors have actually resolved a critical problem with copying/dictation by requiring copying first, followed by dictation of the same piece. This way, students have already encountered unusual punctuation or sentence breaks that otherwise might be unpredictable when encountered only through dictation.

The program is presented in a single Teacher's Manual (2016 edition is spiral bound, sc) and two student volumes. The teacher's manual offers more than lesson plans. It also has instructions on how to edit, how to make comments, descriptions of typical student errors and probable solutions. Student sample writings are accompanied by sample edited versions and check off lists with teacher comments so you can get a feel for how you might write responses. Other helps in the manual are answer keys; reproducible check off lists, reference sheets, and forms; supplemental activity ideas; story starters; essay topics; and word banks. [The student volumes contain a mix of instructional content and consumable practice pages. Permission is granted for single families to copy consumable pages.]

The first volume focuses primarily on description and narration, although it includes lessons on writing short reports, concise (5 sentence) biographies, and news articles. Skills covered are typical of those covered up through junior high. The second volume gets into high school level with advanced narrative and descriptive writing plus heavy emphasis on essay writing. The level of difficulty straddles junior high and high school; none of the writing assignments are very lengthy. High schoolers will still need to practice writing lengthier papers and research reports than required by WriteShop. (Keep in mind, that the program is not intended to cover all types of writing assignments. For example, there are no lessons on poetry or writing business letters.) If you start the program with younger students, move through it more slowly, taking three years rather than two. Older students might be able to complete both volumes in a single year if they are very diligent and have already developed basic writing skills.

The program is written by Christians; you will find occasional biblical references, primarily in the teacher's manual. However, it also appears indirectly in lessons such as writing a description of a person where the authors caution the student to remember to be gracious and focus on a person's positive features.

Overall, this is one of the best resources I've seen for parents who need lots of help to teach writing as well as a great tool for group classes. ~ Reprinted from Christian Home Educators Curriculum Manuals with permission of Cathy Duffy, Grove Publishing.

Update: Please note that the workbooks have undergone a format change in 2015. They are no longer in binders, but are now soft cover with tear-off pages (bound at the top). Pages are 3-hole punched to add to your own binder.

Customer Reviews

<p>I bought this curriculum 2 years ago for my 6th grader Wonderful curriculum no complaints there For $4595 I got a nice binder with dividers and the lessons with consumable pages This year (2015) I ordered the same product for another child The price has increased over 20% with much less product The picture shows the binder but it is not included Neither are the dividers The sheets are bound at the top which makes for extra work to tear them off to put into a binder (thankfully I saved the one from before) It would have been nice to know all this beforehand</p>

I chose Write Shop to help my 7th and 8th grade home school students become better writers. It is a comprehensive, teacher lead, complete curriculum to help you student become proficient in many different writing styles. This has helped them be top of their class in high school for writing papers and reports.

I chose Write Shop to help my 7th and 8th grade home school students become better writers. It is a comprehensive, teacher lead, complete curriculum to help you student become proficient in many different writing styles. This has helped them be top of their class in high school for writing papers and reports.

BEST ANSWER:This item - #002472 - is the Student Workbook 1. We do have a Set that includes both the Teacher Manual and Workbook 1. We also sell the Teacher Manual separately as well as the second Student Workbook for the course (the Teacher's is for both Student Workbooks).

BEST ANSWER:This item - #002472 - is the Student Workbook 1. We do have a Set that includes both the Teacher Manual and Workbook 1. We also sell the Teacher Manual separately as well as the second Student Workbook for the course (the Teacher's is for both Student Workbooks).

I am pretty sure you buy that separately. I bought the student book for a co-op and it did not come with the teacher’s manual. Most everything I buy has student material separate from teacher’s material. Hope that helps.

BEST ANSWER:We have not started using this book yet, as our school year begins in September. I have looked through most of the teacher and student workbooks. So far there was only 1 religious reference to some scripture about being encouraged and encouraging. Hope that helps.

BEST ANSWER:We have not started using this book yet, as our school year begins in September. I have looked through most of the teacher and student workbooks. So far there was only 1 religious reference to some scripture about being encouraged and encouraging. Hope that helps.

The only time scripture is used, it is when the students are studying similes. It uses a passage of Psalms as a literary example. Also, on the student writing checklists it asks the student to evaluate their writing based on whether it is "pleasing to the Lord."

What is the difference between this set and the WriteShop I Set with References (WS1WRF)? The description makes it sound like the same program (with additional references), but one item is pictured with Binders and the other with Bound Workbooks.

WriteShop: Incremental Writing Program Set (Teacher Manual and Workbook 1)

WriteShop I Set with References

BEST ANSWER:The set comes with the student book, teacher book, and extras for grammar. The blue three ringer binder is the same product as the new paper back version of writeshoo. They just aren't providing a binder you have to buy your own. The paper in the new book is cheaper quality as well.

BEST ANSWER:The set comes with the student book, teacher book, and extras for grammar. The blue three ringer binder is the same product as the new paper back version of writeshoo. They just aren't providing a binder you have to buy your own. The paper in the new book is cheaper quality as well.

I am not an authority on this topic, but I do know that as of August of last year 2015, when I spoke to the company that produces Writeshop materials, the binder format is no longer available. All student texts, at least, are now in workbook form. The tear-out pages can be placed in a binder and used in much the same way. You will need to contact RR to verify that they have only the new format in stock, which was my experience when I ordered last year. I hope this is helpful. The reference grouping would then have the extra materials, but all have the workbooks.

The difference in the pictures is just the new format of binding the books (same content inside). They use a new format of softbound books with 3-hole punched pages that can be torn off at the top. But otherwise, the teaching and student material is the same in content as the old binders, except that the one set comes with a few extra references, like the Blue Grammar book, etc.

I found this program to be very teacher-user unfriendly in that it didn't tell you which section & page to go to for the teacher's involvement in the lesson. They just expect you to remember where to find it after you read the introduction to the program. Maybe the "reference" version corrects this.

That is exactly the difference. The older set was sold in binders, the newer set now comes as a bound book with perforated and hole punched so they build their binder over time. The content is the same in the books.